Let's Talk Fanfiction!! {Closed}

If you've made it this far...you've wasted your time.

This is the last chapter until further notice. I'll probably still do reviews but...any inspiration I've had for rants has run dry for the time being.
That being said, enjoy this last rant while you still can.

All right. If you know me, then you know I write Sonic Fanfiction.

No this isn't another Sonic-related rant.

The one actual book that I have written on this profile is about a girl named Emma Burns. And she's based off of my fan character. There is a few major differences between Emma Burns and my FC, though. Because I had to change her for the story to work.

She originally had..I dunno...ten cliches, maybe more?

She's suicidal, people consider her "emo", she dated a Canon, she has powers, she's supposed to be a really powerful being, her biological mom pretends she doesn't exist, her ex boyfriend used to beat the snot out of her, she's a princess, she can sing, and yes, she does wear converses.

But there's a twist behind every one of these cliches.

And that's what I want to talk about. Cliches don't have to be bad, all right? Especially if someone who can write good uses them.
I'm not saying there needs to be more carbon copy romance stories.
I'm saying I don't mind the suicidals or the bullied or the kids with crappy parents so long as they're written well.

So there's characters out there who can spit balls of fire and gets teased for it?
If that was normal in our society, how many kids would get called an Italian Plumber?

And this is why the title of this rant is like it is. Nearly everything I wrote in here, that I "ranted" on, that you guys read and commented and voted on– you quite literally wasted your time doing so. Not insulting any of you or anything, that is something I'd rather avoid doing. Just..this'll make sense in a minute.

I don't mind cliches. I don't mind overused ideas. I don't mind if you make a Canon out of character or you shove your Fan with a Canon. So long as you actually TRIED when you wrote it and you didn't copy-paste someone else's entire story, I'm perfectly fine with it. Which sounds like I'm going against EVERYTHING I've written down in here, and in a way I am.

That's why I told you guys about my character. Is she full of overused and seemingly childish ideas? At first glance, yeah. She does.
But I'd like to think that after it's all written down, that those "terrible cliches" come together to make something incredibly amazing.
Or I'D like to think that.
But I'm just the author, so...what good's my opinion?

Anyways. Moving on.

When I was..say 11 maybe and I first got Wattpad, I can tell you right here, right now that I absolutely HATED it with a passion. I couldn't do collabs with other authors like I used to, I couldn't get too deep in without feeling like I was too young for it, and the worse part was you had to have something for anyone to recognize your stories. That something being a thousand followers or being a devoted roleplayer or maybe getting your story on Wattpad's top 100 books.
But there was one thing I could do on here without feeling completely unaccomplished, and that was having my characters reviewed. It was a nice changed for once to know what readers wanted out of a story or how characters should be. And eventually it helped me create some better stories that I have yet to post on here.

BUT–

Don't get me wrong. Books like this can get a little too big for their britches.
For instance, if you try to make a book and edit it based on the opinions of books like these...well..you're not going to get very far.
Why?
Because these are the opinions of one person. One. And how many people are you trying to satisfy when writing? An entire fandom?
Since creating this rant book, I've met Wattpaders who have the same opinion as mine. Or so far, anyways. But there's still a wide variety of opinions out there, especially in the world of fanfiction, and editing your book to the likings of the ranters might harm more than help.

And then there's the OC reviews. They're pointless, really. I mean, I get it. When I was that ridiculous 11 year old, I wanted to know with absolute certainty that my characters were great. So I used several OC Reviews to help me out and eventually fixed them.
But then their stories were boring.

That's why I say OC Reviews– while great to an extent– aren't the best way to help you fix your story. I've reviewed so many amazing characters, and I'm always worried that I've unintentionally ruined their books because I pointed out something that appeared to be a major flaw, but was actually needed for the story.

Dear Chaos, my head hurts. Anyone else's?
Okay, let me try to summarize what I just said to make it less confusing.

Rants and OC Reviews– they're great. They can help some people get their ideas straightened out.

But sometimes they hinder more than help by unintentionally causing someone to change what could've been a really good plot device or an exceptional character.

And this happens a lot in fanfiction. In this book, the common cliches appear to be frowned upon. Like having abusive parents or being bullied. Or dating a Canon– which I haven't ranted on, but nevertheless, people despise it.

You can have a complete Mary-Sue character and still have a great book.

You can have a few cliches and still have readers gripping the edge of their seats. After all, cliches are overused for a reason.
That's why my FC has so many of them– they are explained and they do tie into both her as a character and in her story.

But the way you write your fanfictions are up to you. If you want to give a chick multi-colored hair, so be it.
If you think there needs to be some cutting involved, then fine.

What I'm trying to say is TRY when you write. That's something I've been saying since Rant 1. If there's no emotion in your story, if I look at the entire thing and feel nothing, then there's a good chance you just typed words on a screen and didn't think much about it. Or you saw something that got a lot of views and thought it'd be all right to copy it.

And if you're just starting out as a writer and everything you put down sounds crappy or full of overused ideas, then that's okay too. Superman didn't have his name put in lights after one day. P!ATD didn't become an amazing band overnight. And most authors out there didn't just take a pen and paper and write an entire best selling book in one go– though if you can do that, then good for you and why the frick are you wasting your time reading this.

Writing's hard. Not curing cancer hard. Not save the world hard. Not stepping on a Lego without crying hard.

But, dang, does it wear you out.

All right, I think I've "ranted" enough.
But the next time you think your character isn't good enough or your story could be better after reading a "book" like this–
You can't make everyone happy. Just write down what you like and do it at your best.

Yeesh. That was mushier than I planned it to be. Okie dokie then.
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Forgot to add– The dedication will be up soon (after Chaos knows how long of procrastination). So be on the look out for that.

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You guys are the greatest and I hope you enjoyed this!!!